Hannah Arendt: Difference between revisions

In her reporting of the 1961 {{lang|de|[[Adolf Eichmann]]}} trial for ''[[The New Yorker]]'', which evolved into ''[[Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil]]'' (1963), she coined the phrase "the [[banality of evil]]" to describe the phenomenon of {{lang|de|Eichmann}}. She raised the question of whether [[evil]] is radical or simply a function of thoughtlessness, a tendency of ordinary people to obey orders and conform to mass opinion without a critical evaluation of the consequences of their actions and inaction. She was sharply critical of the way the trial was conducted in [[Israel]]. She also was critical of the way that some Jewish leaders, notably {{lang|pl|[[Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski|M.C. Rumkowski]]}}, acted during [[the Holocaust]]. This caused a considerable controversy and even animosity toward Arendt in the Jewish community. Her friend {{lang|he-Latn|[[Gershom Scholem]]}}, a major scholar of [[Kabbalah|Jewish mysticism]], broke off relations with her. Arendt was criticized by many Jewish public figures, who charged her with coldness and lack of sympathy for the victims of the Holocaust. Non Jewish scholars and politicians criticized Arendt as well. US Judge and witness for the prosecution, Michael A. Mussmano, was an ardent critic of her and her work. He and other scholars alleged that Arendt had allowed her personal preconceptions of totalitarianism, Naziism, and Israel to plague her analysis of Eichmann. Because of this lingering criticism, neither this book nor any of her other works were translated into Hebrew until 1999.<ref>Elon, Amos. Introduction. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. By Hannah Arendt. New York: Penguin, 2006, xxi.</ref> This controversy was answered by Hannah Arendt in the book's Postscript.